Fanning started wrestling in 1964 as "Big Jim Vallen". He went to the
World Wide Wrestling Federation in the 1970s as "Handsome Jimmy Valiant" and formed a team with
Johnny Valiant that would dominate the tag team scene for a while as
WWWF Tag Team champions. In the later 1960s in the
World Wrestling Association, they were managed by
Bobby Heenan. Valiant had entered the WWWF in 1971 as a babyface, originally known as "Gentleman Jim Valiant," but quickly switched to a heel. He had title matches against champion
Pedro Morales in secondary arenas, such as Philadelphia, and feuded with short-term tag partner
Chief Jay Strongbow. Jimmy and his kayfabe brother
Johnny Valiant held the tag belts from 1974 to 1975 and main evented Madison Square Garden against Chief Jay Strongbow and
Bruno Sammartino (Strongbow and Sammartino won 2 out of 3 falls, but one fall via disqualification; hence the belts didn't change hands). During the late 1970s to early 1980s, Valiant was a central player in the
Memphis, Tennessee wrestling scene. He
feuded regularly with
Jerry Lawler and teamed with
Bill Dundee to dominate the tag team matches of that time. He even recorded a song, "The Ballad of Handsome Jimmy", which was used in wrestling arenas as his entry music and became a mainstay on some Memphis radio stations for a few years. Despite the Memphis promotion desperately wanting to keep him in Memphis full-time, even offering to buy him a house in Memphis according to Jerry Lawler's biography, Valiant decided to move on after holding the
AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship for roughly a year. Valiant also spent a brief amount of time in
Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 1970s as the heel "King James Valiant" managed by
Lord Alfred Hayes. In 1979, Jimmy returned to the WWWF with Johnny occasionally wrestling and went into the manager role. He managed Johnny and
Jerry Valiant as they won the tag belts. In the early 1980s, Valiant returned as a babyface to
National Wrestling Alliance's
Jim Crockett Promotions as "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant and called his fans "the Street People". His theme music around this time was "Boy From New York City", by
The Manhattan Transfer. While in Jim Crockett Promotions, he would sometimes appear in a black bandit-style mask and call himself "Charlie Brown from Outta Town". This usually occurred when Valiant was (in
kayfabe) banned from wrestling. Charlie Brown was billed as someone other than Valiant, despite "Brown" having Valiant's legendarily prodigious beard. January 1984, Valiant was attacked by Paul Jones and The Assassins. They tied him to the wrestling ring ropes so that Jones could cut his beard off. This led to a grudge match with hyped supershow called 'Boogie Man Jam '84' in
Greensboro, North Carolina. For this match, Dusty Rhodes was in Valiant's corner and tied by a rope to Paul Jones. Valiant defeated Assassin II, who was unmasked and revealed as
Hercules Hernandez. Due to the beard cutting attack, he feuded heavily with
Paul Jones and his army of wrestlers, from 1984 through to late 1986. This army of wrestlers included
The Barbarian,
Baron von Raschke,
Teijo Khan, and
The Assassins. During this three-year feud, Valiant received help from
Héctor Guerrero and
"Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez. Although Jimmy Valiant would lose a Loser Leaves Town Tuxedo Street Fight to Paul Jones at
Starrcade 1984 in
Greensboro, North Carolina the feud with many from the Paul Jones stable continued, which would come to include
Abdullah The Butcher. In 1985, Valiant and Ragin' Bull Manny Fernandez formed a team called
B and B Connection ("Boogie Woogie" and "Bull"). During
The Great American Bash 1986 summer shows, Paul Jones adopted a military style look in his long feud with Valiant and labeled his stable of wrestlers
The Army. Valiant would beat Shaska Whatley in a hair vs hair match, but with outside interference lost a hair vs hair match to Paul Jones only weeks later. In the fall of 1986, the Raging Bull Manny Fernandez, Valiant's best friend accepted Jones' money and turned on Valiant, starting a feud between the two. Paul Jones at this point shortened his army to his newly acquired tag team of Ragin Bull and Rick Rude. The war between Valiant and Paul Jones climaxed at
Starrcade '86: The Skywalkers with Valiant putting up the hair of his valet Big Mama against the hair of Paul Jones in a No DQ Match which Valiant won (while the Ragin Bull was placed in a cage above the ring). In the late 1980s, he teamed with Hector Guerrero (then masked as Laser Tron) and
Bugsy McGraw and feuded with The
New Breed. When Jim Crockett Promotions became
World Championship Wrestling, Valiant left and returned to Memphis to wrestle in the
United States Wrestling Association. In 1990 he twice won the
USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship from Jerry Lawler, losing it back to him both times. On February 8, 2020, he wrestled for WrestlePro in Rahway, New Jersey, where he teamed with Buster Jackson to defeat the team of
Colt Cabana and CPA. On May 14, 2022, Valiant came out of retirement at 79 years old winning a 6-man tag team match at Patriotic Wrestling Federation in York, South Carolina. On August 13, 2023, he then wrestled for Revolution Wrestling Authority in High Point, North Carolina, teaming with Rob McBride in a 3-on-2 Handicap Match to defeat the team of
Jonny Fairplay, Julian Strauss, and Steven Frye. Valiant debuted for
Beside The Ring Wrestling in
Mountain City on August 31, 2024. After unveiling the inaugural Beside The Ring Championship, Valiant excited the crowd before being interrupted by
Evan Golden. On November 1, 2025, Golden interrupted Valiant on the microphone at All Star Entertainment, after which Valiant struck him with a strap. He currently wrestles under the ACW Banner (American Championship Wrestling) around the Roanoke Virginia Area. Valiant is a trainer at Boogie's Wrestling Camp located in
Shawsville, Virginia. He continues to appear at independent shows signing autographs while his students appear in a few matches on the card. He keeps in touch with fans through his official Weekly website. Most recently, Valiant lent his name to a foreword for a fiction novel called "Only The Beginning" by his friend Jason Strecker. The book is not wrestling-related, but tells a story set in the 1980s about a girl's life during high school. It also has a foreword by wrestler
Nikolai Volkoff. On April 25, 2026, Valiant wrestled a final retirement match in
Lancaster, South Carolina, dubbed ''Boogie's Last Dance.'' Valiant, Magnet Man and Moonshine Express defeated VSP and Deon Johnson in an eight-man tag team match. ==Personal life==